I need my driveway redone and I need advise. It is over 20 years old and has some cracks, but no major failures. One company wanted to tear out the old, lay down limestone and let it sit for a few weeks, then finish it $13,000. The second company says the base is good if it held up this well this long. Just needs a 2” cap, and some work; $2/ sq ft = $5700.

Will this 2” cap hold up well for the long term (15 yrs or so)?

Or should I just bite the bullet and pay for a complete new drive. It’s 150 ft by 14” wide. 2700 sq ft total. Both companies get good ratings locally. More estimates??

Thanks.

Pics of drive, ie cracks. How deep is the asphalt?? SE Michigan weather is rough on the asphalt.

quote:

150 ft by 14” wide

That is sure a skinny drive!

Be very careful with driveway contractors. Around here all the good pavers do work for the state DOT and don’t bother with residential driveways. The residential work is done by pretty unscrupulous folks, to put it politely.

I was hoodwinked pretty good on the driveway replacement of my first house. The driveway was 40 years old and full of cracks and potholes and had been overlayed several times.

I paid for one foot of excavation that they didn’t fully do. The crushed stone material was crap and too thin. It wasn’t compacted well nor graded correctly. And nothing was measured so what they built was smaller than the original driveway footprint! And they made a mess of my surrounding areas. It was a nightmare experience.

The bastard even had the gall to try raising the price at the end. I paid the minimum contract price to get them out. I would have withheld payment but I was afraid of retaliation. These guys were scary. And when I tried to make a fuss with the BBB, social media, or even legally, I was told I should have known better and that all the pavers are crooks and better luck next time.

You might want to contact your town’s public works department and ask them if they could recommend somebody. I only thought of doing that after my experience was over and they laughed at me when I told them who I had hired. They know all the players and know who does honest work.

My one tip would to be to consider hiring a site work contractor to dig out your old driveway and regrade and compact the sub base. They might actual use a level and get the drainage correct. Then hire the pavers to just do the paving. They should put down at least one inch of base course and one inch of wearing course for two inches total. And frankly those should be the compacted dimensions so they should be laying It down slightly thicker like 1.25 inches.

And if they show up to do the estimate in brand new pickup trucks, wearing gold jewelry and Gucci leather loafers, I would pass on their services.

It depends on what you mean by last. IMO no, when you put a 2" skim coat on top, the existing cracks will show through in just a few years in the same exact places. It will look better, but won't be perfect like ripping it out, re-doing and re-compacting the base and putting fresh on top.

no

The cracks are called alligatoring. They show up because the subgrade is moving. This would be the ground underneath the current asphalt. This may very well be due to poor soil and or water. A 2-inch lift of new asphalt (That’s 2-inches compacted depth) will hold up for years, but unless you fix the subgrade, it will start to alligator again eventually.

Post some photos. We can only guess at your actual condition.

I was thinking about this recently.
Had asphalt "repainted" (my word) on the current driveway maybe 16 years ago. Have had people show up from time to time asking to do this again.

I don't really see the point. No, it doesn't look 1958 pretty, but it has no potholes, and cars drive on it with no problem. Not sure what resealing it is really supposed to do.

Even if that is helpful somehow, in my case I plan to save up money to build a nice carport extension - which will result in needing to move the driveway anyway.

Are the cracks from settling or from things like tree roots growing underneath (pavement rising around the cracked area)?
Settling needs to have a better base in those areas and maybe better drainage if the softness is caused by water getting below.
Tree roots from a few large trees is more of the problem I have so I need to research how to fix that before repaving in a few years.